They want to recover more than 4 million rubles from the founders of an opposition newspaper in St. Petersburg

In St. Petersburg, the first court session was held on the suit of the Municipal Council of the Kupchino district against the founders of the online publication Novosti Kupchino. The plaintiffs allege that one of the articles entitled “The Kupchino Municipality has reduced expenses for veterans” caused moral damages totaling 4.4 million rubles.

In 2015, the Kupchino district deputies made adjustments to the budget of the local cultural institution Nash Dom and allocated 200 thousand rubles for a bowling tournament, although this money was originally intended for festive meetings with veterans. As a result, expenses for veterans decreased by 201 thousand rubles. The amount for holding concerts for the holidays also decreased by almost 2 million rubles, and spending on the Miss Kupchino contest for some reason increased by 200 thousand rubles (initially, the cost of the contest in the table was equal to zero). These budget changes caused a scandal in the press. News of Kupchino also wrote about them - far from the first of the media.

In January 2016, local authorities filed a lawsuit with the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region demanding that a refutation be published, and that moral damages in the amount of 2 million rubles in favor of the municipal council and 200,000 rubles each be recovered from each of the founders of Novosti Kupchino. rubles from each in favor of the local administration. There is no explanation in the lawsuit why the officials decided to demand such a large amount. The founders of the newspaper had long-standing conflicts with the municipality of Kupchi, the newspaper publishes civil activists of the region.